Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

Blurb from Goodreads

An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest contemporary novelists.

Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’s union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.

Inspired by stories of her own family’s history, Claire Messud animates her characters’ rich interior lives amidst the social and political upheaval of a recently vanished world. As profoundly intimate as it is expansive, This Strange Eventful History is “a tour de force . . . one of those rare novels which a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li). 

Why I Want To Read It

It’s Monday again! I know, Monday is nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week; I should know because I also dread it. Mondays mean the start of the work week. How I wish weekends were longer. On the other hand, Mondays also come with the opportunity to start anew. It provides us the chance to go after our goals. Today is also the first Monday of August. How time flies. We are already in the ghost month. I hope that everyone’s year is going well. I hope that the remainder of the year will shower all of us with blessings, positive energy, and good news. If it has been going otherwise, I hope that the remainder of the year will provide you with a reversal of fortune. I hope that we get to work on the goals that we want to achieve at the start of the year. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy, in mind, body, and spirit.

To commence another blogging week, here is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. After spending three months reading works of European literature, I am slowly pivoting toward other regions. Actually, my plan for this August is still vague. I initially planned to commence my foray into Asian literature but I am not yet sure. I just might be reading recently published books that have been gaining attention. I might read books in my 2024 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To list. Oh well, I guess I will just let my reading take its natural course. But back to the real intention of this weekly update.

This week’s featured book is part of my 2024 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To List. It was while researching for books to include in this list that I first came across Claire Messud who, I just learned, published her debut novel, When The World Was Steady in 1995, almost two decades ago. Her latest novel, This Strange Eventful History was a familiar presence in several most anticipated 2024 book releases list. This immediately grabbed my fancy, prompting me to include it on my own list; this was even though I had not read any of Messud’s works and it was the first time I encountered her. Besides, something was riveting about the book that reeled me in. It held a promise that is quite difficult to describe.

This Strange Eventful History, if my memory serves me right, was inspired by Messud’s own family’s story. This makes it appeal to me even more as it has historical overtones. It is also set in Algeria, a setting I rarely encountered in my years of reading. Just recently, This Strange Eventful History was announced as part of the 2024 Booker Prize longlist. This makes it even more imperative for me to read the book. However, obtaining a copy of it proves to be a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, I am hoping I get to obtain a copy of the book before the year ends. How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!